Hobby horse



y 3, 1955 H. A. WILEY ETAL 33 HOBBY HORSE Filed May 19, 1952 ATTORNEYUnited States Patent O HOBBY HORSE Harry A. Wiley, Gardner, and HaroldF. Shaw, Leominster, Mass, assignors to Thayer, Inc., Gardner, Mass., acorporation of Massachusetts Application May 19, 1952, Serial No.288,696

1 Claim. (Cl. 272-62) This invention relates to new and improved hobbyand rocking horses, including fixed base and rocking base types, anddirected particularly to a new and improved spring supportedintermediate base suspended from the fixed or rocking base as the casemay be, for improved and more realistic action of a horse body figurerigidly mounted on the intermediate, spring-supported base, with noother direct mounting support than resilient members, whereby the horsebody figure is not constrained to a fixed rocking or arcuate path as inprior art devices that support the figure of the horse on levers orswinging linkages.

The principal object of the invention resides in the provision of thehobby horse above briefly described including a floor supported portablebase which may be of the rocking type or fixed type, there being legs orstandards rising in pairs fore and aft on the base and including springson the standards, in combination with an intermediate floating,spring-supported base rigidly mounting a horse body figure of any designdesired, said intermediate base comprising a longitudinal centralelongated member having a short crosspiece at each end thereof forsecurement thereto of the legs of the horse figure, and there being apair of longer crosspieces secured to the central member inwardly of theends thereof for attachment to the end portions thereof by the springsor the standards, the short end located crosspieces being capable ofpassing between the respective pairs of standards during resilientrocking and other motion of the horse body figure on the springs.

Other objects of the invention include the provision of a device asabove described including rocker members on the portable base, saidrocker members being curved on arcs of circles having relatively greatradii so that the device may be rocked safely and may also have themotions resulting from the spring suspension feature, the latterenhancing the bucking and sidesway motions of the horse to make the samemore life-like, when the motions resulting from both rocking and thespring suspension are combined.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear hereinafter.

Reference is to be had to the drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a perspectiveview of the hobby horse mounted on a rocking base; and

Fig. 2 is a perspective View of a base that is non-rocking and on whichthe same horse body figure may be mounted.

As illustrated herein, a very life-like horse body figure is chosen tobe mounted on the supporting base, but any conventional figure may beused. The figure has fore legs 12 and rear legs 14 which preferably butnot necessarily extend outwardly beyond the figure, so that an elongatedbase is made possible, for sturdiness and extra safety.

The rocking members 16 of Fig. 1 are made along fiat curves at thecentral portions 18 thereof to provide for a low position of the horsebody and also for assurance against rocking the device over, eitherforwardly or rearwardly. That is, the curves of members 16 at thecentral portions thereof are on arcs of circles having relatively greatradii and the centers of such circles are above the horse body. However,the ends of members 16 are reversed to form hook-like standards directedback toward each other as at 20. The members 16 are connected by crosspieces 22 or the like to make a rigid frame.

Springs 24 are secured to the in-turned ends of members 16 andresiliently support the horse figure through an intermediate framecomprising a central longitudinal elongated member 26 having short crosspieces 28 at each end thereof arranged at the top surfaces of thecentral member. Cross pieces 28 receive and support the feet of forelegs 12 at the ends thereof, and these cross pieces are shorter than thedistance between the parts 20 of rocking members 16 so that they canswing between the same.

Longer cross pieces 30 are secured inwardly of the short end crosspieces 28, and the cross pieces 30 are substantially the same in lengthas the distance between rocking members 16 so that by securing thesprings 24 to the cross pieces 30 adjacent the ends thereof, the springs24 extend substantially fore and aft in parallel relation.

The base in Fig. 2 comprises a fixed or non-rocking base having longside frame members 34, end standards 36 that are vertical and taperingupwardly, and which form supports for the springs 24. The intermediatebase is thesame as above described. The frame members 34 and standards36 are connected by cross frame members 38. This form of the inventiondoes not provide for the combined rocking and spring suspension motionsbut has only the latter. The proportions of the cross pieces 28, 30 tothe frame members 16 and 20 are retained in the construction of thefixed base of Fig. 2.

What I claim is:

A hobby horse comprising a horse body figure, a pair of spaced legs atfront and rear thereof, a spring supported base for the figure, saidbase comprising an elongated member located centrally longitudinally ofthe figure, a short cross piece at each end of the member, the legsbeing secured to the cross pieces at the ends of the latter, relativelylonger cross pieces on the member intermediate the end cross pieces andspaced therefrom, a floor supported base, a pair of spaced standards ateach end of the base, said standards being spaced apart in pairs agreater distance than the lengths of the short cross pieces so that thelatter may pass between the standards, resilient connections between thestandards and the longer cross pieces, the entire figure, rider, andspring supported base being solely resiliently supported, said floorsupported base comprising a pair of elongated curved rocker members, andthe standards being continuations thereof reversely bent on short radiiat the ends of the rocker members to form an ellipsoidal rocker frame,the elongated member extending to and between the standards.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS208,531 Marqua Oct. 1, 1878 1,950,042 Upper Mar. 6, 1934 2,437,015 BaltzMar. 2, 1948 2,487,249 Krasberg Nov. 8, 1949 2,494,184 Linder Jan. 10,1950 2,625,395 Spingler Jan. 13, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 254,058 GermanyNov. 22, 1912

